compact flash card development

desertkids · Joined: 30 Nov 2008 Posts: 8

Hi, currently I am doing a system deal with compact flash card. Does anybody have done any related project with CF card? Can share with me?Thanks in advance.

ckielstra · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 3680 Location: The Netherlands

Have you tried Google?
In the first hit I found Circuit Cellar - PIC a CompactFlash Card Which looks like a very promising start.

Most people programming for the PIC are using SD cards as these can be accessed using SPI as opposed to the parallel ATA interface for the Compact Flash cards.
SPI = 4 I/O pins
ATA = 17 I/O pins....

ratgod · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 69 Location: Manchester, England

I'm currently working on a project that has an IDE hard disk connected to a PIC18F4523, I based it on the text from this page:

http://www.pjrc.com/tech/8051/ide/wesley.html#8255ide

so far I can read the drive specifications, power down/up the drive, and read a sector.

I know its not CF but CF and IDE are supposed to be almost identical.

I can post my schematic and code if its any help, but keep in mind its far from finished.

FvM · Joined: 27 Aug 2008 Posts: 2337 Location: Germany

Nearly everything above the read/write sector level can be copied from a SD card project. For the CF card access in true IDE mode, you have an option to use a 8-Bit data bus that's not available with hard drives. So you can save 8 data lines.

However, a few CF products have problems with true IDE mode. Sometimes, the issues arised with a known product, when the maufacturer changed the CF controller chip without notice.